If 10 years ago, you heard the phrase “TikTok,” you might have first thought of the sound a clock makes, or even Ke$ha’s chart-topping ode to partying. While the song may be now considered a classic, TikTok is now THE social media platform “kids these days” are using.

Why does that matter? The social media orbit is constantly expanding, and not every age group uses it in the same way. Think about how far we’ve come in the digital age:

  • 1990: World Wide Web launches to the public
  • 2004: Facebook launches
  • 2006: Twitter launches
  • 2008: Barack Obama’s strategy of using social media called “preposterous on its face”
  • 2012/2016: Social media cited as major driving forces in presidential elections
  • 2017: TikTok launches

Now, consider how all American adults’ media habits were affected by these seismic shifts:

Seventy-two percent of American adults use at least one form of social media, and more adults say they get news from social media than from print newspapers.

Ubiquitous but Not Uniform

For older generations like the Baby Boomers, who were raised on Walter Cronkite and newspapers, slower social media adoption has drawn most of them to legacy platforms like Facebook. It’s their social media platform of choice for news consumption.

And while 18–29 year-olds also use Facebook, they almost definitely use Instagram and Snapchat, too. These twentysomethings are more likely to be on Twitter and make up the biggest block of news consumers on Snapchat and Reddit.

Breaking down 18–29 year-old trends even further reveal the divides between Millennials – who are now early-to-mid career adults – and Gen Z – most of whom are still in K-12 and had their own cellphone before 6th grade. Much more so than any other generation, Gen Z is on TikTok and Twitch. (Full disclosure, we had to Google both platforms to find out what they were.)

In Content We (Sometimes) Trust

With different platform use comes different exposure to issues. A recent poll found that among social movements on social media, Boomers are most likely to be familiar with Impeach Trump (80 percent), while Gen Zers are most familiar with gun control movements (78 percent).

The extent of each generation’s social media adoption has also affected their skepticism towards online content. Boomers don’t like political advertising on social media (only 34% approve), and they’re split on whether their social media posts influence their followers. But more than half of Gen Z thinks digital advertising is fine – to them, it’s as normal as any other method – and they overwhelmingly feel their own posts are influential.

Interestingly, we’re all pretty skeptical about the truth. Americans don’t trust the news, don’t trust social media, and really don’t trust the information in digital political campaign ads.

We know Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other heavy hitters will continue to dominate Americans’ attention. What remains to be seen is which platforms emerge as the next drivers of how people (and different generations) consume news. Who knows, maybe TikTok will become a news platform instead of one that creates videos like this one.